Commissioner

The Honourable Michael McHugh AC QC is appointed Special Commissioner to the Inquiry by Letters Patent issued by the Governor of New South Wales on 6 May 2015 under the Special Commissions of Inquiry Act 1983 (NSW).

Prior to his appointment as Commissioner he was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1961 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1973. Between 1978 and 1983, the Commissioner was Vice President and then President of the New South Wales Bar Association and in 1983 and 1984 was President of the Australian Bar Association.

The Commissioner was appointed as a Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1984 and a judge of the High Court in February 1989, a position he held until November 2005.